T-Mobile becomes first carrier to offer HD Voice, shows it off with MLB partnership

Verizon may have brought out the NFL’s commissioner Roger Goodell, but T-Mobile had a counter to that with a sports partnership of it’s own. Today T-Mobile announced a 3 year sponsorship deal with Major League Baseball, giving the sport it’s first telecom deal in nearly 15 years. Joe Torre, Tim Brosnan, and Noah Garden all took to the stage as ambassadors of the MLB to talk about the partnership. The plan will also include providing communication between the dugout and bullpen in MLB ballparks. If nothing else, this will provide relief pitchers some extra “any time minutes” to chat during all that down time they have.

The cornerstone of the T-Mobile and MLB partnership includes a feature the phone maker seems particularly excited for: HD Voice. It’s a concept that has been bandied about by carriers for a bit, but will be instituted for the first time by T-Mobile. HD Voice is said to dramatically improve the quality of voice calls, providing a more “natural sound” that will supposedly make it sound as if you’re in the same room as the person you’re speaking with. Handsets capable of HD voice include: the HTC One S, Nokia Astound, and Samsung Galaxy S III.

The HD Voice feature will power the calls in MLB stadiums, so expect a lot of promo spots during calls to the bullpen. The feature is currently only available on T-Mobile’s 4G smartphones.